Samsung Could Adopt Iris Scanning On Its Mid-Range Phones

At Samsung's Unpacked event in New York City, the company announced its latest flagship device, the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 and it happened to come with quite a number of firsts. Among the firsts which the device has claimed when it was launched is that it sports Gorilla 5 Glass protection on its front display and on its back, the first device in the "Note" lineup to feature a waterproof S Pen and it also happens to be the one of the first smartphones to offer iris scanning capabilities for improved security. The infrared iris scanner which is on the front of the handset can unlock your phone in almost any lighting. While iris scanning is only available on a premium device like the Galaxy Note 7 at the moment, Samsung has announced that it plans to bring it to its mid-range Galaxy smartphones.

The South Korean electronics giant has a long-term plan for iris scanning technology and will soon adopt it into its mid-range smartphones once the costs are more controllable. According to DJ Koh who is the president of Samsung's mobile division, through the continued cost cutting of components, we may begin to see iris scanners to be available on mid-range Galaxy devices, such as on the "Galaxy A" lineup which is Samsung's mid-range line. DJ Koh also mentioned that there is a view that Android security is weak compared to other platforms and Samsung wants to change that perception by expanding software security. The company has invested over three years in developing the iris scanning technology used in the Galaxy Note 7.

DJ Koh went to say that iris scanning is the most secure out of all the biometric security systems which are currently available. As to why Samsung decided to include an iris scanner on the Galaxy Note 7, DJ Koh said that it wasn't included to merely grant users a new way to unlock their devices. Instead, Samsung has bigger plans for it in the long run and wants it to connect with more third party apps. The company also wants to allow users to use iris scanning to perform large transactions in mobile banking and is already in talks with banks in multiple countries to make this feature become a reality.